REALITY CHECKS NEEDED

Racing does not benefit from broadcasters misleading viewers over the sport's true popularity. As has long been the case with the Grand National, we are told people from all over the world were watching Royal Ascot live. Numbers are not given but it would be safe to guess that the claim is not the extraordinary one it may sound.

These are the days where we all have a thousand channels at our fingertips. We  can tune into nonsense like PaversShoestv whenever we choose. The Toe Post Show clashed with the Chesham. I doubt huge numbers from around the globe would have been tuning into The Toe Post Show but the same could be probably be said for the Chesham, even though it probably came out ahead in this clash.

Many believe that the sport would benefit from a bigger proportion of airtime put aside for historical perspectives. Some of us appreciated the part of the coverage from the day we still nostalgically refer to as Timeform Charity Day at York last Saturday when Richard Hoilles brought out a racecard from the corresponding day in 1971, 'Ford Cortina Day', assisted by a replay of the closing stages of the three year old sprint then known as the Ford Cortina Cup.

The race was won by Sir Mark Prescotts's lightly weighted Heave To, with the eye going straight to the Whitney colours on the top weight Swing Easy, who went and destroyed Mummy's Pet in a heavy ground King's Stand Stakes soon after.

Both Swing Easy and Mummy's Pet retired at the end of their three year old careers. Those of us who got obsessively bitten by the racing bug in 1975 witnessed their stud careers from the year when their juveniles first hit the track.

It's an angle that would only take a minuite or two to mention on TV, but it's one of racing's most alluring areas where fans are able to follow progeny of their favourites. It was more easily enjoyed then with a multitude of competing factions and a sizeable number of prominent owner breeders allowing fans to understand the concept of 'families' in the bottom half of pedigrees, and be engrossed with the likes of the Joel and Hollingsworth operations.

All the more surprising that in relation to the Royal connection this week there was no recounting of the Height Of Fashion saga, who was from the most successsful Royal Stud female line, and who ended up being sold before becoming one of the most successful broodmares of her era.

It cannot be repeated enough that though this sphere of the game is not connected to betting, those who begin to take a keen interest in it are very likely to become horse race punters for life.

It was likewise disappointing that they failed to put Bataash's achievements into proper perspective on the run up to the King's Stand Stakes. Being talked of as the best sprinter since Dayjur, or even the best ever was irresponsible and would have still been even if he had not fluffed his lines again.

Ratings need be supported by solid achievement and this is an animal who has been given the platform to show his worth at the very highest level on numerous occasions but has fallen short every time.

And what of those sprinters that graced the scene in the time between Dayjur and the present. Well, Mozart, Oasis Dream and Stravinsky were undoubtedly superior for starters, and you could throw in another half dozen who were arguably of similar ability. And no comparison of speedsters is ever complete without putting Abernant into the mix.

You could invent a name for all this attention given to Bataash. It could be called something like the 'Hawk Wing Syndrome'. Admittedly, the rating this hugely hyped colt received was in the Lockinge after it had been promoted to the highest level, but the circumstances allowed him to hugely flatter himself yet allow no leeway for the weights and measures brigades to downgrade the performance.We know he was not that good. High class, but not outstanding by any means.

Unfortunately Hawk Wing had an unfair burden put on his shoulders from his early days when it was reported that some of the long lived staff at Ballydoyle who had been there during M V O'Brien's last three decades at the helm, believed that this was the best horse they'd had in the yard since Nijinsky!

Bataash has been enveloped by this syndrome and if he appears next at Goodwood and steams home it will give the myth more mileage.

The narrative on Masur was put into a more realistic perspective. The emphasis on a Derby winner staying in training was righly given the high profile attention it deserved, along with it being questioned whether, if connections had been totally delighted with his preparation, they would have nominated the Prince Of Wales as the target for him last weekend. The post race analysis to the performance was likewise handled impressively.

The Lanfranco Dettori adulation over the four-timer was overstretched for the racing fan, but in the circumstances there was little choice for them to make it the lead narrative from the moment the third winner went in, to the close defeat in the Britannia.

It was however low down the pecking order in the general news and the racing broadcasters should have took their feet off the pedal after the bubble burst. Instead they choose to focus on this glitzy media personality when a serious and balanced discussion of his riding ability would have been more apt.

Jimmy Lindley would have been an asset here. He could have analysed Dettori's riding style with Julian, watching a video of him in the early 1990's, a video of him now, and looking at what become of the many young riders influenced by his style a quarter of a century back.

When Dettori springs from a box in one of those annoying 'LadsLads' adverts and utters something inaudible, it simplifies someone who is no doubt far from a clown of a person and does the image of the sport no favors -  though he was used for a Golf holiday commercial where he let out a silly laugh. The same of course applies to all the other jockey's involved in such adverts, with Richard Dunwoody appearing in someones's living room in a daft William Hill advert perhaps starting it all.

Jonjo jumped a fence at Wetherby and shouted 'lotta bottle' to the camera in an advert for milk. Kevin Keegan was the Green Cross Code Man, John McEnroe recomended Bic Razors. The truth is that nowadays racing is not popular enough with the general public for it's stars to be used in general advertising, many of whom under forty years of age could only name McCririck, McCoy and Dettori.
image in public domain